Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Vol 14, Issue 4 311-316, Copyright © 1995 by American College of Nutrition

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Low-protein diets in the treatment of chronic renal failure

W. E. Mitch
Renal Division, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, USA.

Dietary protein restriction is an established method of preventing the symptoms of uremia but three questions should be asked before beginning this type of therapy: Will the diet maintain adequate nutrition? Can compliance be monitored? Will the low-protein diet prevent uremic symptoms and change the course of the disease? There are positive answers to these questions. Recently it has been shown that the metabolic acidosis associated with kidney failure causes catabolism by increasing the degradation of muscle protein and of essential amino acids. The mechanism for these responses includes increased mRNAs encoding enzymes involved in catabolic pathways. Activation of these pathways would impair the ability of patients to respond to a low-protein diet because the ability to reduce the oxidation of essential amino acids and degradation of protein would be limited.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. B. Copley Resistance Training Enhances the Value of Protein Restriction in the Treatment of Chronic Kidney Disease Ann Intern Med, December 4, 2001; 135(11): 999 - 1001. [Full Text] [PDF]